CoSA II. Monte Verità, (CH) April 3rd.-5th. Research.Research at Monte Verità. Exploring “dialoguing” with trees. Developing ‘meditative conversations’, a method where we connect through our consciousness and open up for a deeper listening through meditation, asking the trees questions in relation to the site. Allowing responses to influence further artistic choices.​In 2019 we plan, in collaboration with LOCUS, to host a collective gathering of artists working in relation to Monte Verità as site.About CoSA - Concerning the Spiritual in Art CoSA is a collaboration between the artists Inger-Reidun Olsen and Marianne Skjeldal (LATERNA) and Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen (LOCUS). Through our various artistic praxis in performance, dance, photography and drawing, we seek to investigate the spiritual related to places with spiritual reference or history. Through art projects, residencies and study trips we will channel the spiritual in art that was so important for the modernist movement 100 years ago, and which is resurfacing today in contemporary art and praxis.

CoSA aims to channel and interpret the spirit of places (Genius Loci) into our artworks and performances and explore sites with spiritual reference or history by re-creating lost rituals and creating new artworks. With performative situations and séances at selected sites. The performances will include materials, objects, sound, movement and actions in relation to each place. Through collaboration we merge performative- and visual arts traditions and share knowledge and experience from each practice.The project will culminate in creating a publication through inviting external theorists, art scholars and artists to write alongside our own reflections. Our aim is to contextualize the spiritual in contemporary art while also relating the project to Wassily Kandinskys’ publication “Concerning the spiritual in art” (1911) and other artists of that time-period.

The project is supported by the Art Council Norway, Fond for lyd og bilde and The Norwegian Institute at Athens.

LATERNA was established in 2011. As a nomadic porous unit, based in Oslo, Inger-Reidun Olsen and Marianne Skjeldal, both choreographers and performers, collaborate through various formats within performance, dealing with materials, objects, sound and actions in relation to our artistic research, performative and spiritual practices. www.laternalaterna.org

LOCUS is an artist and curator collective and independent art space. As a nomadic and fluctuating entity Locus produce exhibitions and presents different artists in various locations nationally and internationally. Based in Oslo at Grünerløkka Lufthavn, Locus has a studio/showroom and hosts various events. Since 2009 Locus publishing has produced 3 books and will now invite select artists to create individual artist books working with the CoSA theme. Locus was established in 2006 by Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen and has recently exhibited in cities such as Stavanger, Miami, Oslo, New York, St.Petersburg and Medellín in Colombia. www.locusart.org